Consensus-based guidelines for transparent reporting Prediction models can provide reliable estimates of a patient’s risk (or probability) of having a specific underlying condition or of developing some condition in the future. Prediction models have consistently outperformed estimates made by individual doctors. Familiar examples include the Framingham Risk Score for cardiovascular disease, the APACHE score for […]
Category: Guest writers
The COMET Initiative’s second meeting – a truly international affair
The second meeting of the COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) Initiative (COMET-2) was held on 11-12 July 2011 in Bristol and was attended by more than 150 researchers and trialists, systematic reviewers, health service users, healthcare practitioners, journal editors, research funders, policy makers and regulators. […]
Martin McShane: One small step
Back in May 2010 the professional executive committee and NHS Lincolnshire board agreed to delegate the management of the minor surgery local enhanced service to the practice based commissioning (PBC) Groups. A lot of discussion and analysis had taken place prior to this decision. Practices had said that the historical budget was insufficient to meet […]
Domhnall MacAuley: My big fat gypsy wedding
The TV programme My big fat gypsy wedding made me cringe. We cared for a large community of travelling people for many years and I felt embarrassed on their behalf. Some traveller women I spoke to felt let down by these programmes. The cold documentary eye made the lavish weddings and extraordinary dresses look absurd. They […]
Polly Stoker on Threads and Yarns – personal accounts of health and wellbeing
Senior citizens and first year textile undergraduates getting together to make material flowers is not something that you would associate with the BMJ. Much more Craft magazine, surely? This was certainly my first thought when told to cover the V&A’s one day, “Threads and Yarns” exhibition. But after looking at the brief, (and being a […]
Desmond O’Neill: First night of the Proms
It is a sure sign of the ever diminishing pool of memorable acronyms that even the most treasured of ceremonial events can be hijacked for the basest of clinical motives. In recent years, a prominent casualty was one of the highlights of the British cultural summer, the Proms. Rather than a magnificent series of concerts […]
Jacqui Young: NHS celebrates progress in heart and stroke services in England
A conference held in London this week, titled “Celebrating clinical leadership in heart and stroke care,” looked at what has been achieved over the past decade in heart and stroke services under the leadership of Roger Boyle, who retires this month after 10 years as England’s national director for heart disease and stroke. […]
Tomohisa Shoko, Yasuhiro Otomo, and Atsushi Shiraishi: The next day of the disaster – a report from a Japanese disaster medical assistance team
Pictured: Tomohisa Shoko, the corresponding author. On 11 March 2011, at 2:46 pm Japan time, a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific coast of Japan’s Tohoku (northeastern) region. The maximum seismic intensity, level seven (on the Japan Meteorological Agency’s scale), was recorded in Kurihara City, northwestern Miyagi Prefecture. About 25 minutes after the quake, […]
K M Venkat Narayan: Smoking Jordanian doctors
During a recent trip to Jordan a waiter at the international chain hotel I was staying at seated me at a table in the midst of several smokers. When I asked for a “no smoking” table he took me to another, still surrounded by smokers, and replaced the ashtray with a no smoking sign. I could barely breathe and eat my sandwich to my […]
Tiago Villanueva: Barbara Starfield’s legacy
Primary healthcare gurus can’t compete with the ranks of top film or sports stars in terms of global notoriety, but Barbara Starfield, who died earlier this month in California aged 78, was one of the most, if not the most, glistening star of the world of academic primary healthcare. She came as close to worldwide celebrity status as a […]